Leave it to New York to have crude concrete. A decade ago, Big
Apple walkways had the audacity to cast aspersions on
pedestrians' undergarments when lingerie maker Bamboo Lingerie
stamped sidewalks with the phrase, "From here, it looks like
you could use some new underwear." Such bold marketing tactics
seem almost genteel now, when every waking moment is saturated in
sales messages. Even the most, um, delicate of human experiences
are now fair game. In 1999, Internet retailer Half.com placed ads in Penn Station
urinals, and media company Captive View has plans to install 1,000
"viewrinal" screens in restrooms throughout the UK.

The human body, long an insignia-sporting shill for various
retailers, continues to be quite the billboard source. Temporary
tattoo manufacturer Print Expressions will customize 500 tattoos
with your company logo for just $89.50. Think tattoos won't
make enough of a statement? Maybe you should buy a spaceship. Pizza
Hut reportedly paid $1 million to put its logo on the side of a
rocket en route to the International Space Station. Not to be
one-upped, Radio Shack is in negotiations to have its logo
displayed to the entire world-on the moon, just a stone's throw
from the Sea of Tranquillity.

With advertising venues multiplying like bunnies, will consumers
be able to absorb it all, or will their brains go on strike?
Kathleen S. Micken, associate marketing professor at the Gabelli
School of Business at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode
Island, cautions that if consumers face too much information, they
may shut down-or worse. People who believe that not every little
bit of our lives should be sponsored by some corporate entity will
have a negative response to such ads, Micken says.

Some novel ad venues do make sense, like ads on grocery carts
and baggage claim carousels. A captive and receptive audience is a
beautiful thing, and thinking beyond normal marketing parameters
can have major benefits. "If an ad that shows up in an
unexpected venue is entertaining or witty and fits with the
setting," says Micken, "it may engender an even more
positive response."